Arts & Science Council President Scott Provancher told Mayor Anthony Foxx and other pols this week that the group may seek help recruiting (paying for) blockbuster exhibits.

The high-profile touring exhibits would be ideal to help draw visitors to the city’s collection of sparkling new museums.

The traveling shows can require upfront payments of $500,000 to $1 million. Provancher envisions a venture-capital fund seeded with private and public money. ASC has had talks with the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority about a possible collaboration on such a fund. “It’s a very serious conversation right now,” Provancher says. “We have all these amazing assets” and now some great attractions to increase attendance could make them that much stronger, he adds.

Moynihan has new flight plan

Don’t look for Brian Moynihan fumbling with a laptop and taking off his shoes in the security line at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

The Bank of America CEO has signed an agreement to lease BofA’s corporate jet fleet for his personal use. The agreement, disclosed recently in a securities filing, allows Moynihan to pay out of his own pocket to use BofA planes and flight crews to travel at his leisure. The agreement doesn’t disclose the price but says it will be equivalent to the fair-market value of a chartered flight.

It also discloses details on BofA’s six-jet fleet: two Gulfstream Aerospace G-Vs, two Gulfstream Aerospace G-VSPs and a pair of Dassault Aviation Falcon 2000s.

Seeking a market maker

Deadline is next week for candidates to apply for the executive director job at the uptown city market. Last month, Charlotte Center City Partners signed Blue Cross and Blue Shield of N.C. as a sponsor, joining Carolinas HealthCare System. The market created controversy when Center City Partners asked for as much as $1 million in public funding, but that request was later dropped. Now plans are moving ahead, with a market director set to be hired this spring for a July opening. Applicants, according to the job posting, should have at least three to five years experience in a comparable field, “display political savvy” and possess expertise in everything from property management to financial planning.

On tap at Metropolitan

Hickory Tavern will open its 14th location this fall at the Metropolitan. The sports-themed restaurant has signed a lease for 5,100 square feet at the midtown development and is aiming for a September opening. Lauren Wilson of Colonial Properties Trust represented the landlord, and Scott Mileham of New South Properties represented Hickory Tavern.

New home for HomeArama

HomeArama is crossing the border — to York County. Baxter Village, the 1,000-acre development started by Clear Springs Development in 1998, will host the annual tour of luxury homes sponsored by the Charlotte Home Builders Association. The show will be in a new Baxter section featuring larger lots than the rest of the neo-traditional community. Dates are Sept. 23 through Oct. 9.

Tweet of the Week

This one comes from Charlotte-based Wells Fargo project manager Tom De See:

@tomdesee: charlie sheen must have been tipped off that TV studios have the best crack

TT is sad to report that Tom has offered no Twitter quips on Wells CEO John Stumpf’s $12 million bonus this week.

Bechtler gets a head in effort to showcase sculpture

For lovers of the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s iconic Firebird sculpture, March looks like a very good month. Two weeks from today, the Bechtler will unveil an outdoor exhibit across the street at The Green featuring five more whimsical works by Firebird creator Niki de Saint Phalle.

The centerpiece: La Cabeza, a 14-foot-tall and 12-foot-wide sculpture of a human head that admirers can clamber around in. La Cabeza is shown here as it was exhibited at the Atlanta Botanical Garden in 2006.

An additional 55 smaller works by de Saint Phalle will be installed at the Bechtler museum, with Wells Fargo sponsoring all of the works during a run expected to end Oct. 3.

“As exhibitions go, this one has a healthy seasoning of complexity,” says Bechtler museum President John Boyer. Flatbeds will carry the 13,000 pounds of sculptures here, with cranes and other machinery needed to put everything together for the exhibit. Wells Fargo owns The Green, which, thanks to its underground parking deck, meets the engineering specs needed to support the massive works. “It’s a logical extension of the significant investment” the bank made in developing the Bechtler and the Levine Center for the Arts, says Jay Everette, Wells Fargo community affairs manager.